In a letter to the United Nations, the Azerbaijani Permanent Mission accused Armenia of recruiting large numbers of foreign fighters in the recent armed conflict in Artsakh, including Greeks.
In the letter dated November 18, 2020 from the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations and addressed to the Secretary-General, Azerbaijan accuses Greece transporting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants to Artsakh.
Specifically, without evidence, they accuse Olympic Airways of facilitating the transfer of Kurdish militants from Iraq to Armenia.
The Azerbaijani letter would then say that “Greek City Times revealed that the first batch of Greek fighters would consist of approximately 80 Greek citizens, around 50 of Armenian origin and about 30 ethnic Greeks.”
“The Greek media further reported that Armenian recruitment involved around 500-800 Greek nationals, some with combat experience in NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo,” the Azeris added in their report.
However, what Azerbaijan deceptively omitted is that Armenian National Committee of Greece, Hovik Kasapian, said on October 26 (and reported by Greek City Times on October 27) that no one from Greece had gone to fight in Artsakh.
Kasapian explained that people who had registered to go and fight in Artsakh were Greek-Armenians who were only put on a list and would be called upon if they were needed.
“The Armenian embassy will decide whether such a mission will take place, but I believe that such a thing will not be requested,” he said.
The Armenian community leader also said “I was personally called by a Pontian living in Greece who came from Armenia, who asked to go and fight in Artsakh.”
“However, we do not want to put Greek foreign policy in adventures,” he continued, adding that “the presence of Greeks in a war so far from its borders involves great risks and can be blamed on Greece. This is not a football match.”
The Azerbaijani letter would also directly cite Greek City Times’ Paul Antonopoulos on Page 10 of its “data from intelligence sources.”
However, as already mentioned, the Azeris completely omitted Kasapian’s revelations that volunteering ethnic Armenians were not dispatched from Greece and were just put on a list, while ethnic Greeks were flatly rejected from going despite many intentions.
